Ball addressed several topics, including the injuries he suffered while being assaulted by five males on Aug. 1, his current health and his decision to speak to his teammates about the incident.

Also, several of his teammates offered some pointed comments about the idea that Ball shouldn't have been out at 2 a.m. given his status and value to the team.

Here is a link to a video from UW and here are some comments, which I'll be updating:

"Trying to be a leader for this team and a captain I knew I had to get up and say something to all the players," he said, referring to a recent team meeting at which he spoke. :"Because for all the work I’ve put into this program I’m sure they’re looking up to me. So I just wanted to make sure they know I am all in with them and focusing on what we need to do."

Asked about the incident, Ball said:

“There’s not really much I can tell you because the police investigation is still going on. But what I can tell you is it was just my last night basically before camp started. Went out with a few friends. We weren’t getting rowdy or anything.

“Then I was just heading right back to my place, a block away, and I was attacked. That’s all I remember.”

Ball lost consciousness and woke in an area hospital.

“Basically I am looking at it now that I am very blessed. Because obviously it could have been a lot worse...

“I’m most definitely going to count my blessings and thank the Lord that all I had was a bruised jaw.”

Asked if he would now impose a curfew on himself, Ball noted once football starts his social life diminishes.

“During the season I am focused on winning for this team,” he said. “But I don’t look over my shoulder. I don’t walk out of my apartment scared. You just can’t do that.“

Ball mentioned he read two stories on the Internet that suggested he was establish a trouble pattern of behavior.

“That’s not true at all,” Ball said. “People who know me know how I am, how I carry myself."

I told Ball the first question I get from people asking about the assault generally is this:

"What was he doing out at 2 in the morning?

Ball responded: “No one has asked me that question. You could say that I shouldn’t have been out at 2 in the morning. But I was a block away from my apartment, literally…

“We just decided to go out and just enjoy ourselves before we attacked this camp and the season for the next four, five or six months."

Head coach Bret Bielema has said the staff will ease Ball back into the rotation at practice. Ball is set to begin working in full pads Tuesday but is expected to wear a green "no-contact" jersey all week.

“They know best,” Ball said. “I know how my body feels. I feel fine. But there is no reason to rush it. So I’m going to come back in a green jersey.

“For me, being a veteran, I just need to get back to running. I know how to take hits.”

Is Ball, who suffered a concussion during the attack, worried about being susceptible to more concussions?

“Not at all,” he said. “I don’t think I am concussion prone. I believe being attacked by five people, 100% of this population is going to walk out with a concussion or maybe worse.”

Since Ball was assaulted, the No. 1 question I hear from readers/fans is this: What was he doing out at 2 in the morning?

Here are some comments from center Travis Frederick and linebacker Chris Borland on that topic.

“I’ve heard that as well," Frederick said. "He is a regular student. As much as everyone wants to say that he is who he is and we are who we are, we are students at the University of Wisconsin.

“We take our academics just as seriously as we take our football. Obviously we have to be a little more careful than other people but I think you can ask students on campus and they’ll tell you there are other athletes out and about.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.”

Borland declined to say whether anyone had the right to ask that question:

“I’m not going to speak to whether it is right or wrong for anyone to do anything like that," he said. "But he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He wasn’t breaking any rules. I think that is kicking a guy when he is down.”